Using Themeefy to narrate in the past

Class or Subject Area: Foreign Language

Specific Learning Objectives:

Reading (beginner): Students locate a concert or a film on calendars of public events and identify where it takes place and at what time it starts.

Reading (intermediate): Students I read reviews dealing with the content and criticism of cultural topics (films, theatre, books, concerts) and summarize the main points.

Writing (intermediate): Students give clear detailed descriptions on a wide range of cultural, intercultural and social issues.

Writing (advanced): Students write detailed critical appraisals of cultural events (film, music, theatre, literature...).

Grade Level(s): 6-12

Activity Summary:

Students use Themeefy to write a short e-book presenting the cultural life of a given city.

What you need:

Access to Internet

Access to Themeefy

How it works:

Students use Themeefy to (1) agregate and (2) curate relevant information about the cultural life of a given city. They visit web pages giving information about seasonal festivals, movies, dance, theater, museums. Then they pretend that they spent their last week-end in that city and write - in the past – about their experience, contrasting past tenses, such as “perfect” (what they did) versus “imperfect” (how it was).

Preparation:

Make a list of cities you want your students to visit. Those may be related to places that your students will visit in real life or places described in a novel you are reading in class. Assign each student (or group of students) one of the cities on your list.

Have them write about the cultural life of the city they just visited.

Directions for the students:

“ I will assign for each of you one of the cities we have discussed in class. Using Themeefy, you will gather information about cultural events happening in that city. Your task is to write a five-page long e-book about the cultural life of that city, as if you had spent a week-end there For each page, write a comment about the cultural event you supposedly attended. Your magazine includes 5 contrasted uses of the past tense. At the end, you will send to your teacher the url of your e-book. To understand how it works, let’s demonstrate with … (you model the activity by explaining how to use Themeefy with a city and a narration of your own).

Sample:

Here is a sample e-book I have made for the students, to use as a model.